On the slopes: the Tory MP who enraged a city

Now gaffe-prone Boris Johnson can add the furious people of Portsmouth to his list of enemies.

The controversial MP has sparked anger by describing the Hampshire city as "too full of drugs, obesity, under-achievement and Labour MPs."

• Poll: Should Boris apologise to Portsmouth for his controversial comments?

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Mr Johnson, the Tory's bumbling higher education spokesman, had managed to avoid putting his foot in his mouth for several months.

But he sparked a fresh furore in a magazine article in which he reviews a £340,000 Mercedes Maybach limousine he used for a visit to the University of Portsmouth for the Conservative Party.

In his latest monthly motoring column, he describes driving the luxury car onto the campus: "The streets are full of rain. Poor bedraggled students splash across the campus in search of their lectures on feminism and media studies.

"Here we are, in one of the most depressed towns in southern England, a place that is arguably too full of drugs, obesity, under-achievement and Labour MPs."

Last night MPs and civic leaders in Portsmouth, population 187,000, demanded Mr Johnson apologise for "insulting" the city.

Mike Hancock, Liberal Democrat MP for Portsmouth South, said: "He is living up to his reputation of being a buffoon and a prat. He is talking out of his a***.

"This is typical of Cameron's Conservatism - it's a pity that someone who aspires to be a minister should make comments like these, it's pathetic.

"He should walk barefoot to Portsmouth and apologise and even that won't be enough.

"And for him to talk about people with a weight problem is completely ridiculous - if you imagine the supreme example of manly fitness, Boris Johnson is not the name that comes to the fore."

Gerald Vernon-Jackson, the Liberal Democrat leader of Portsmouth City Council, said: "I am happy to debate the issues in this city - things are not perfect, but I will not have people slagging us all off in that sort of dismissive fashion in an article about a £300,000 car."

The Safer Portsmouth Partnership, an organisation which tackles crime and anti-social behaviour, said Portsmouth - a historic naval city - had about 1,000 fewer drug addicts than Oxfordshire, which includes Mr Johnson's Henley-on-Thames constituency.

Alan Knobel, the partnership's substance misuse manager, "It isn't right to say we have a drug problem in the city as the figures do not hold out when we compare the city with other areas."

It is not clear whether the furore in Britain has reached Mr Johnson yet.

He is currently on a skiing holiday with his family in the resort of Courchevel in France and was last night unavailable for comment.

However, it is not the first time the 42-year-old has courted controversy.

In October 2004, he narrowly survived being sacked as the Tories' arts spokesman after the Spectator, which he edited, criticised Liverpudlians for their emotional response to the murder of Iraq hostage Kenneth Bigley.

Michael Howard, then Conservative leader, ordered him to go to Liverpool to say sorry after the magazine said the city was "hooked on grief" and "wallowing in victimhood".

Mr Johnson did as he was told and made a grovelling apology to the Bigley family for the 'hurt and distress' he had caused.

But the married father-of-four was sacked from the Tory frontbench a month later over an affair with Spectator columnist Petronella Wyatt.

In September last year, Mr Johnson again displayed his flawed gift for diplomacy by linking Papua New Guinea to "cannibalism and chief-killing".

Jean L Kekedo, the country's high commissioner in London, said she was "shocked and appalled".

And a month, he angered senior Tory colleagues by suggesting Iran's hardline Islamic regime should be helped to develop a nuclear bomb.

But Mr Johnson's maverick style, sense of humour and ability to poke fun at himself earned himself a huge army of fans.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: "Boris speaking his mind, in only the way Boris can, is preferable any day to Labour and Lib Dem politicians who try to cover up the truth."